Gun retailers support expanded criteria for denying gun purchases

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Gun retailers support expanded criteria for denying gun purchases

Posted By News On September 23, 2013

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A scientific survey of gun dealers and pawnbrokers in 43 U.S. states has found nearly unanimous support for denying gun purchases based on prior convictions and for serious mental illness with a history of violence or alcohol or drug abuse...

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By wide margins, respondents endorsed three existing policies that deny handgun purchases to individuals convicted of aggravated assault involving a lethal weapon or causing serious injury, armed robbery, or domestic violence. They also strongly supported six of nine potential denial criteria proposed in the survey. The percentage of support for existing (*) or proposed criterion for denial of handgun purchases are detailed below:

• *Aggravated assault, involving a lethal weapon or serious injury, 99.1 percent
• *Armed robbery, 99.3 percent
• *Assault and battery on an intimate partner:/ domestic violence, 79.6 percent
• Publicly displaying a firearm in a threatening manner, 84.8 percent
• Possession of equipment for illegal drug use, 80.7 percent
• Assault and battery, not involving a lethal weapon or serious injury, 67.4 percent
• Resisting arrest, 53.1 percent
• Alcohol abuse, with repeated cases of alcohol-related violence, 90.1 percent
• Alcohol abuse, with repeated cases driving under the influence (DUI) or similar offenses, 70.7 percent
• Serious mental illness, with a history of violence, 98.9 percent
• Serious mental illness, with a history of alcohol or drug abuse, 97.4 percent
• Serious mental illness, but no violence and no alcohol or drug abuse, 91.2 percent

"Respondents very strongly supported an array of criteria for denial of handgun purchase by wide margins and in some cases nearly unanimously," Wintemute said. "Support fell below a two-thirds margin in a single case: resisting arrest."


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A Misguided Focus on Mental Illness in Gun Control Debate - NYTimes.com

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D.
Published: December 17, 2012

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But there is overwhelming epidemiological evidence that the vast majority of people with psychiatric disorders do not commit violent acts. Only about 4 percent of violence in the United States can be attributed to people with mental illness.

This does not mean that mental illness is not a risk factor for violence. It is, but the risk is actually small. Only certain serious psychiatric illnesses are linked to an increased risk of violence.

One of the largest studies, the National Institute of Mental Health’s Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, which followed nearly 18,000 subjects, found that the lifetime prevalence of violence among people with serious mental illness — like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder — was 16 percent, compared with 7 percent among people without any mental disorder. Anxiety disorders, in contrast, do not seem to increase the risk at all.

Alcohol and drug abuse are far more likely to result in violent behavior than mental illness by itself. In the National Institute of Mental Health’s E.C.A. study, for example, people with no mental disorder who abused alcohol or drugs were nearly seven times as likely as those without substance abuse to commit violent acts.

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